James Conway's updated Simon Boccanegra with ETO at Hackney Empire

By Francesca Vella, 11 March 2013

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Reviewed at Hackney Empire, London on 8 March 2013

Verdi, Simon Boccanegra

English Touring Opera

Michael Rosewell, Conductor

James Conway, Director

Craig Smith, Simon Boccanegra

Elizabeth Llewellyn, Amelia Grimaldi

Keel Watson, Jacopo Fiesco

Grant Doyle, Paolo Albiani

Charne Rochford, Gabriele Adorno

Piotr Lempa, Pietro

English Touring Opera transfers Donizetti to the English coast

Dominic Lowe, 27th September

L'elisir d'amore may not immediately bring Skegness or Romney to mind, but ETO's new production works quite well there... just look out for the seagulls!

***11

Blissful and hard-boiled: I Capuleti e i Montecchi at ETO

David Karlin, 22nd February

Eloise Lally shifts the Romeo and Juliet love story into New York mafia families. Jessica Cale and Samantha Price provide blissful bel canto as the star-crossed lovers.

****1

A tender Shakespeare-inspired curio from English Touring Opera

Susannah Moody, 15th February

ETO kicks off its spring season with What Dreams May Come, a strange and moving staging of songs inspired by William Shakespeare.

***11

Theatrically poverty-stricken: ETO's Blond Eckbert

Mark Valencia, 18th October

Judith Weir's cryptic folk opera lacks the narrative propulsion necessary to enthral an audience, and without resolution there is no catharsis.

**111

ETO's The Snowmaiden melts the heart and gladdens the ears

Dominic Lowe, 28th September

Olivia Fuchs' production of Rimsky-Korsakov's charming fable for ETO begins its tour in Hackney and is worth travelling to see. Catch this thoughtful production in a town near you.

****1

ETO opens spring tour with an off-the-wall Manon Lescaut

Mark Valencia, 24th February

Jude Christian's indulgent reinvention of Puccini's opera does not serve English Touring Opera well as it embarks on its spring tour.

**111

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Francesca Vella

Francesca is a PhD student at KCL, where she is researching Verdi reception in late nineteenth-century Milan. Besides being interested in cultural history and the history of Italian opera, she loves the classical and romantic piano and chamber music repertoire.